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In Tantric Kali, Daniel Odier presents the mythology, practices, and rituals of Kali worship in the Tantric Kaula tradition within Kashmiri Shaivism. He reveals the practices of Vamachara, commonly known as the Left-hand Path but more accurately translated as the Path of Shakti. In this tradition the body itself is Kali’s temple, and it is therefore unnecessary to reject or deny the body to know union with the divine. Instead, nothing is regarded as pure or impure and there is complete freedom from rules. Focused on working directly with forbidden emotions and behaviors, this path allows the seeker to transcend obstacles to liberation through sexual union. According to the Kaula Upanishad, “In your behavior do the opposite to what the norms dictate but remain in consciousness.”
Daniel Odier Tantric Kali: Secret Practices and Rituals
Broché 2016 Tantric Kali: Secret Practices and Rituals
The mythology, rituals, meditations, and practices used in Tantric worship of the goddess Kali in the tradition of Kashmiri Shaivism
• Reveals the practices of Vamachara, known as the Left-hand Path but more accurately translated as the Path of Shakti
• Includes a Kali ritual from the Nirrutara Tantra, translated here for the first time
• Presents devotional chants, meditations, and mudras specific to Tantric worship of Kali
According to traditions going back to pre-Vedic times, Kali sprang from the third eye of the Goddess Durga as a destructive and terrifying manifestation of feminine power sent to lay waste to the forces of evil. Throughout India to this day, Kali is worshipped as the destroyer of bondage, capable of liberating her devotee from all rules and subjugation.
In Tantric Kali, Daniel Odier presents the mythology, practices, and rituals of Kali worship in the Tantric Kaula tradition within Kashmiri Shaivism. He reveals the practices of Vamachara, commonly known as the Left-hand Path but more accurately translated as the Path of Shakti. In this tradition the body itself is Kali’s temple, and it is therefore unnecessary to reject or deny the body to know union with the divine. Instead, nothing is regarded as pure or impure and there is complete freedom from rules. Focused on working directly with forbidden emotions and behaviors, this path allows the seeker to transcend obstacles to liberation through sexual union. According to the Kaula Upanishad, “In your behavior do the opposite to what the norms dictate but remain in consciousness.” This is the essence of Tantra. Kali is absolute reality: manifested as woman intoxicated by desire, she frees the tantric practitioner from all desire except union with the divine.
The author includes an evocative ritual from the Nirrutara Tantra--never before translated into any Western language--containing devotions to the 64 yoginis according to Matsyendranath, founder of the Kaula path. Offering devotional chants, meditations, and mudras specific to Tantric worship of Kali, this empowering book provides practices and teachings for those on the Tantric path to liberation. -
“Consciousness manifests itself as presence. To work with presence is similar to learning a musical instrument, the body being our instrument. To enter this state, take a sensation such as water flowing into your hand or the feel of your bare feet on the ground. Enter deeply into the contact; breathe by relaxing your abdomen; and after fifteen or twenty seconds, leave the sensation and return to your habitual mode. Doing this thirty, forty or fifty times a day allows us to enter into a deep acquaintance with sensation.”
Daniel OdierThe Doors of Joy
Watkins Publishing 2014 The Doors of Joy: 19 Meditations for Authentic Living
We know from countless spirituality and self-help books that authentic joy has no object—it is truly free and boundless. And yet, try as we might, how many of us can say that joy is more than a fleeting fleeting?
Daniel Odier’s approach, which is based in part on his study of Chinese Zen, is refreshingly straightforward. All it requires is a willingness to disengage from our habitual ways of thinking and practice being present throughout the day. He calls his method, “The Practice of Consciousness.” Its purpose is to unlock our spontaneity and recover our innocence and creativity. He writes,
“Consciousness manifests itself as presence. To work with presence is similar to learning a musical instrument, the body being our instrument. To enter this state, take a sensation such as water flowing into your hand or the feel of your bare feet on the ground. Enter deeply into the contact; breathe by relaxing your abdomen; and after fifteen or twenty seconds, leave the sensation and return to your habitual mode. Doing this thirty, forty or fifty times a day allows us to enter into a deep acquaintance with sensation.”
With a nod to Aldous Huxley, whose book Doors of Perception laid the groundwork for the psychedelic and sexual revolutions, Odier’s aim is nothing short of total human liberation. Still, he is realistic about the power that habit and our ingrained ways of operating in the world has over us. To counter them, he offers up some mischievous advice--like this,
“There is something suspect about our adoration of harmony. One of the things I fantasize about is replacing the Buddha on my altar with one of Caesar. The harmony of the Buddha puts us to sleep and makes us soft, but the chaos of Caesar can wake us up. Every morning before this altar we would abandon harmony in favor of the infinite possibilities that chaos represents.”
With Doors of Joy, Daniel Odier has discovered the trip-wire that keeps us from experiencing lasting joy and he gives us the tool kit that will bring it back into our lives for good. -
In 1968 Daniel Odier left Europe for the Himalayas, searching for a master who could help him go where texts and intellectual searching could no longer take him. He wanted everything: the wisdom and spirituality gained from the life of an ascetic and the beauty, love, and sensuality of a life of passion. He found both in Shivaic Tantrism, the secret spiritual path that seeks to transcend ego and rediscover the divine by embracing the passions. In an isolated Himalayan forest Odier met Devi, a great yogini who would take him on a mystical journey like none he had ever imagined. At times taking him beyond the limits of sexual experience, at times threatening him with destruction, she taught him what it is to truly be alive and to know the divine nature of absolute love.
Daniel Odier Tantric Quest: An Encounter With Absolute Love.
Inner Traditions ( USA ) Tantric Quest: An Encounter With Absolute Love.
The author reveals his passionate experiences with a female Tantric master who taught him the suppressed practices of her ancient order.
In 1968 Daniel Odier left Europe for the Himalayas, searching for a master who could help him go where texts and intellectual searching could no longer take him. He wanted everything: the wisdom and spirituality gained from the life of an ascetic and the beauty, love, and sensuality of a life of passion. He found both in Shivaic Tantrism, the secret spiritual path that seeks to transcend ego and rediscover the divine by embracing the passions. In an isolated Himalayan forest Odier met Devi, a great yogini who would take him on a mystical journey like none he had ever imagined. At times taking him beyond the limits of sexual experience, at times threatening him with destruction, she taught him what it is to truly be alive and to know the divine nature of absolute love.
This is the personal memoir of one of France's most honored writers.
Tantrism is the only ancient philosophy to survive all historical upheavals, invasions, and influences to reach us intact by uninterrupted transmission from master to disciple, and the only one to retain the image of the Great Goddess as the ultimate source of power. -
Nothing can match the explosive energy created in the body by pure desire. For millennia, Tantric adepts have harnessed this force as a means of attaining the summits of the mystical life. The energies fueled by passion are used to nourish the inner flame that burns away the egotistical perception of the mind.
Daniel OdierDesire, The Tantric Path To Awakening
Inner traditions ( USA ) Desire, The Tantric Path To Awakening
Explains how the primal energy generated by physical desire can be used to achieve enlightenment • Reveals the techniques used by Tantric adepts to attain mastery over breath, thought, and all physical processes
Desire explores the subtle techniques of Tantra that enable the seeker to attain the triple mastery of the breath, thought, and the natural processes of the body. Tantrics believe that the body is the temple and divinity lies at its heart. In order to arrive at profound awareness, the body needs to be perfectly tuned and working toward a state of perfect fluidity. Desire reveals many of the secret practices intended for this purpose that have been passed down in the major Tantric treatises such as the Vijnanabhariva Tantra and Ch'an master Chinul's treatise on the Secrets of Cultivating the Mind, including the important techniques of the ritual sexual observances known as Maithuna. -
The Spandakarika, the "Tantric Song of the Divine Pulsation," is said to have been transmitted directly to the sage Vasugupta from the hands of Shiva on Mount Kailas. In his commentary on these fifty-two stanzas, the sage Ksemaraja described them as the heart of the Mahamudra.
Daniel Odier Yoga Spandakarika: the sacred texts at the origins of Tantra ebook Yoga Spandakarika: the sacred texts at the origins of Tantra
Inner Traditions (USA) Yoga Spandakarika: the sacred texts at the origins of Tantra ebook Yoga Spandakarika: the sacred texts at the origins of Tantra
The Spandakarika, or "Song of the Sacred Tremor," is one of the most important Tantric texts in the tradition of Kashmiri Shaivism. In fact, it is said to have been transmitted directly to the sage Vasugupta from the hands of Shiva on Mount Kailas. In his commentary on these fifty-two stanzas, the sage Ksemaraja described them as the heart of the Mahamudra, the Great Cosmic Gesture. In Yoga Spandakarika Daniel Odier presents a full translation of the song accompanied by his own commentary and the commentary of more than thirty Tantric masters.
The oldest masters of Spandakarika viewed everything in the universe, including matter, as consciousness and created a yoga practice in accordance with this realization. The sacred dance of Yoga Spandakarika, Tandava, is extremely subtle and difficult, requiring thousands of hours of practice to master, yet it surpasses any other physical practice, allowing the practitioner to touch the divine inner pulse. Once its third stage has been mastered, the yogi or yogini is able to manifest the dance of Shiva in space, a tradition visible in the statuary of Tantric temples in India and Tibet. Energy is no longer contracted by the perception of duality, and the mind and body become unbounded, forming a sphere that contains all that was formerly outside. In Yoga Spandakarika Daniel Odier passes on these vanishing teachings as he received them from his Tibetan master, Kalu Rinpoche, and Kashmiri yogini Lalita Devi. In addition to his translation of the Spandakarika, Odier includes a complete translation of the Vijnanabhairava Tantra, the oldest source text on yoga.
Biography
Daniel Odier became a disciple of Kalou Rinpoché in 1968. He followed his teachings and received the Mahamûdra transmission. Pursuing his earlier interest in Chan (the Chinese zen of origins), he studied the correlation between Tantra and Ch'an, inspired by the work of the Chinese hermit Chien Ming Chen who he met in Kalimpong in 1968.
Some years later in the Himalayas Dan iel followed the teachings of his Kashmiri master, the yogi Lalita Devî who also gave him the Mahamûdra transmission as well as some of the most profound mystical teachings of the Pratyabhijnâ and Spanda schools of the Kaula tradition.
Daniel taught Tantrism and Buddhism in several American universities before founding the Tantra/Chan centre in Paris, in 1995. In 2000, he disbanded this centre in order to encourage independent practice and today he gives workshops and seminars throughout the world.
His books on tantrism, which have been translated into eight languages, deal with the most profound aspects of the Shivaite tantric path and of Chan.
In 2002, Daniel received ordination in the Zen Soto tradition from Kosen Sensei, in Catalonia.
In China in 2004, Daniel received the transmission of the Zhao Zhou (778-897) lineage from the great Chinese Chan master Jing Hui, dharma heir of Xu Yun (1839-1959), holder of the five Chan lineages, and considered to be the greatest Chan master of the 20 th century. Now a recognised Sifu (Chan master), Dan iel brings together in his teachings the two paths which have affected him the most deeply. He offers a form of secular Buddhism which is directly connected to everyday reality and which embodies the essence of Chan. It doesn't involve the traditional steps such as taking refuge, making vows and other formal commitments. Dan iel's practice is centred around Zhao Zhou style meditation sessions, which combine sitting meditation with vigorous, lively walking, always in a state of total presence. (go to www.zhaozhou-chan.com …)
Daniel is also the author of a number of novels, most recently "L'ombre au fond du Fleuve" which will be published by Albin Michel at the beginning of 2006.
Daniel Odier has also written numerous novels, essays and poems. He has translated the works of Lalla, a XIVth century Kashmiri poet and spiritual master (Seuil) as well as an anthology of texts from Chan and Zen masters collected by Thomas Cleary and published under the title « The secrets of meditation » (Pocket).